Hugh's Fish Fight (2011 - 2014)

Hugh's fish fight goes global as he starts to investigate the problems with tinned tuna, before crossing swords with his old adversary, Tesco. After finding out that sharks, turtles and rays get caught up in the purse seine nets which supply the majority of tuna to the UK supermarkets, Hugh heads to the Maldives in search of an alternative, and finds one of the most pristine, and well-protected marine environments on the planet; and a sustainable, ethical, source of tinned tuna, caught by traditional pole and line methods. Meanwhile, some friends from Greenpeace launch their own investigation into the source of Tesco's tuna. And what they find out in Ghana gives Hugh all the evidence he needs to call for a much anticipated meeting with his old friends at the supermarket.

Hugh's fish fight takes him to Scotland, to the largest farmed salmon company in the world, then to Brussels and Westminster to try to and make some waves. In order to add some urgency to his campaign, Hugh launches a website www.fishfight.net, which goes viral, and picks up 24 000 supporters in just 24 hours. Fishermen from all over the country descend on Westminster to add their voices to the protest, which ends with a rallying cry to all of us to try to help sort out the mess our fisheries are in. Hugh believes we all need to try and eat different types of fish, to relieve some of the pressure on cod, tuna and salmon, and we need to add OUR voices to the campaign to stop discards.

Six months after launching his hugely influential campaign to change the way we fish, Hugh Fearnley-Whittngstall returns to bring the story up to date. Six months ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittngstall left the comfort of River Cottage behind and went on a journey to find out what was really going on at the industrial end of our fisheries. What he found was that things are not just bad ... but mad. Half the fish caught in the North Sea is thrown back into the sea, dead, because of crazy EU laws. So he launched a campaign to try to change those laws... And the response from the public was incredible. Over 700,000 people have now signed the fish fight petition, and so many people emailed their MPs to protest about discards that they forced a debate in Parliament. As a direct result of Hugh's campaign, major policy changes are being considered. The British Government has decided to fund a six month study into what would happen if a discard ban was introduced.